The Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) program serves as a linguistic bridge connecting China with the world. Guided by national strategies such as "cultural confidence," "telling China's story well," and "promoting mutual learning among civilizations," the program actively pursues interdisciplinary integration and innovation. This semester, the TCFL program undertook the Chinese language teaching responsibilities for Gengdan Institute's international exchange students. After systematic and rigorous training, the program selected a teaching team of three members: Zhang Xinyu, Fu Haiyan, and Zhao Yun.

From theory to practice, from novice teachers to confident instructors who communicate with heart—what challenges did they face? What journey did they go through? What gains and insights did they gain? Let's hear their stories.

Before teaching, I thought that beginner-level Chinese instruction simply meant following the textbook step by step—covering pronunciation, character recognition, and sentence construction. But when I actually stood in front of the classroom and faced absolute beginners from France, Spain, and Belgium, I truly realized that students from different countries have very different ways of thinking, linguistic backgrounds, and learning habits. A classroom full of beginners actually demands more patience, adaptability, and careful lesson design from the teacher.

European students, who have long been immersed in alphabetic language systems, lack basic familiarity with Chinese characters and tones, which becomes a major hurdle in their learning. In addition, they tend to value logical thinking and prefer understanding rules and principles over rote memorization, so traditional teaching methods do not work well for them. That's why I adopted a "learn through games, reinforce through competitions" approach. I designed a variety of classroom games and mini-competitions to spark the students' interest and motivation, and the results were quite encouraging.

This internship truly made me realize that international Chinese teaching is never a one-way transmission of knowledge, but rather a two-way journey filled with differences and interactions. When facing learners from different cultural backgrounds and with different native languages, the only way to truly enter their language world is to let go of our own established methods, listen patiently, adjust flexibly, and teach according to their needs. Building Chinese thinking from scratch and finding teaching approaches amid differences—this was not just an ordinary internship, but my most valuable experience of growth and personal transformation.

When I actually stood in front of the class, I deeply realized that there was a considerable gap between the ideal classroom I had envisioned and the students' actual learning needs. In the early stage of teaching international students, I made quite a few detours—over-relying on the textbook for lesson preparation and neglecting the students' real situations; explaining content too quickly, leaving them struggling to keep up; poorly designed classroom activities; and imprecise time management.

But it was precisely these "lessons learned from mistakes" that made me understand: a good teacher is not one who never makes mistakes, but one who reflects, adjusts, and improves. Faced with various challenges in teaching, I didn't give in to anxiety. Instead, I carefully recorded common errors and students' confusion points, and thought about ways to improve. I actively sorted out frequently made mistakes by international students and gave them repeated practice and explanations. I kept learning from excellent teaching cases, turning theory into practical classroom techniques. And I continuously adjusted my teaching methods to suit the students' characteristics, making the class more efficient and more engaging.

Throughout this process, I not only improved my skills in lesson planning, delivery, and classroom management, but also learned to observe students, understand them, and respect them. Teaching is a two-way journey—while I was teaching them Chinese, they were also teaching me how to become a more qualified international Chinese teacher.

What touched me most beyond language learning was the cultural exchange. The romantic and delicate temperament of France, the warm and cheerful attitude of Spain, and the gentle and reserved manner of Belgium brought so much liveliness to our classroom. Beyond language instruction, we exchanged views on lifestyle differences, cultural similarities and differences, and daily customs between China and the West. I introduced them to the beauty of the Chinese language, and they shared with me the local culture and traditions of Europe.

I have come to understand more deeply that the international Chinese education classroom is not just about teaching a language—it is about bringing different cultures together through interaction. Every time they read aloud, raised a hand to ask a question, or carefully wrote a Chinese character, it was a two-way journey connecting us through the Chinese language.

In my future studies and work, I will continue to deepen my professional knowledge in international Chinese education and explore teaching methods suited to different types of learners. I will always treat every learner with patience and attention to detail, pass on the charm of traditional Chinese culture with heart, and keep growing on the path of language and cultural exchange.

As students of the Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language program, we always ground ourselves in cultural confidence, practicing what we preach by sharing China's voice and telling China's story well, and using language as a bridge to promote mutual understanding and exchange between Chinese and other civilizations. This internship has further strengthened our commitment to our chosen field. We are determined to grow into well-rounded international Chinese educators equipped with solid professional knowledge, practical teaching skills, and a global perspective, and to fulfill our professional mission through concrete action.